Morning Brief: Markets take hit after Merkel's failed coalition bid

What to watch today

After stocks lost ground for the second week in a row, investors in the U.S. will be facing a shortened holiday trading week and a light economic and earnings calendar. Economic highlights will come on Wednesday, with the final reading on consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan and the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting. Major earnings releases will all come before the Thanksgiving holiday, with salesforce.com (CRM), Dollar Tree (DLTR), Campbell’s Soup (CPB), and Lowe’s (LOW) reporting on Tuesday, while Deere (DE) will report earnings before the market open on Wednesday.

This week, markets in the U.S. will be closed on Thursday in observation of Thanksgiving and will re-open for just a half-day on Friday in what should be some of the lightest-volume trading of the year. And as Keith Bliss of Cuttone & Co. noted on Yahoo Finance’s Midday Movers program on Friday, after next week there are really just four full trading weeks left this year, as Christmas falling on a Monday will see trading desks become veritable ghost towns the rest of that week. So while investors will come into the holiday-shortened week with stocks coming off a so-so two-week period, 2017 is still shaping up to be one of the best years since the financial crisis with the Dow up over 18% this year, the S&P 500 up 15%, and the Nasdaq up over 24%. And don’t forget that December is traditionally one of the strongest months of the year for stocks.

Top news

Failed Merkel talks a hiccup, not dealbreaker for Europe stocks: While Chancellor Angela Merkel’s failed bid to form a new government is damping sentiment toward the region’s stocks in the short term, the strength of the German economy will help stock prices withstand the uncertainty, according to traders and analysts. [Bloomberg]

Former Obama administration official in bid for The Weinstein Co: Maria Contreras-Sweet, the former head of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), has submitted an offer to acquire the Weinstein Co. Contreras-Sweet has put together a consortium of investors who have offered $275 million for The Weinstein Co., according to a source. [Reuters]

Marvell Technology clinches roughly $6 billion deal: Chipmaker Marvell Technology Group Ltd (MRVL) has agreed to acquire smaller peer Cavium Inc (CAVM), as it seeks to expand in the networking equipment sector, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday. The deal will allow Marvell to diversify away from its traditional storage devices business. [Reuters]